Unemployment

WB chit fund scam: What forces people to invest in ponzi schemes?

Kolkata: As the Calcutta High Court begins hearing pleas seeking a CBI probe into the Sharada group chit fund scam on Tuesday, CNN-IBN has found that it is unemployment and stunted industrial and agricultural growth in the state that is forcing people to invest in ponzi schemes.

Seventy-year-old Sunil Sarkar recounts how he found his son Jayanta Sarkar's body at the terrace hanging by a rope. Jayanta, who was allegedly murdered, was one of the owners of Hello India Express Ltd, a fund that went bust. His partner Indrojit Roy committed suicide the next day. His family says it was all a fallout of the Saradha chit fund bust.

Jayanta's wife Papiya Sarkar said, "It's all because of Saradha, there was a panic in the market since January since the employees of Saradha weren't getting paid. Investors were panicking and the collection was shrinking."

Chit funds have long functioned in Bengal. It's a system that thrives mostly on small depositors from rural areas with abysmal banking facilities and financial illiteracy. The RBI says Bengal ranks among the states with the lowest financial inclusion....more    

Meghalaya: Mukul Sangma admits growing unemployment

Shillong: Admitting that Meghalaya faces a growing unemployment problem, Chief Minister Mukul Sangma on Tuesday said the jobless youths in the state were many more than those recorded in the employment exchange register. "There is a growing unemployment in the state and this is reflected in the register of the employment exchange," he said in his reply to the motion on the policy of the government to tackle unemployment in...  

US unemployment rate falls to 7.6 per cent

Washington: Unemployment rate in the United States dropped to 7.6 per cent in March, as against 7.7 per cent the previous month, with addition of some 88,000 jobs, according to latest job figures on Friday. "Both the number of unemployed persons, at 11.7 million, and the unemployment rate, at 7.6 per cent, changed little in March," the Department of Labor Statistics said. Among the major worker groups, unemployment rates for...  

WB: Tea garden workers seek CM's permission to kill themselves

Workers of tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district in West Bengal are battling acute poverty and unemployment since the tea gardens shut down 10 years ago. The workers are now seeking permission to kill themselves as the extreme situation has even driven many to sell off their women to the human trafficking trade. ...  

Akhilesh blames BSP regime for unemployment in UP

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Friday lashed out at the previous BSP regime for failing to create employment opportunities as well as rampant corruption following which some of its ministers were later arrested. ...  

Global jobless to hit record 200 million in 2013

he global jobless queue will stretch to more than 200 million people in 2013, the International Labour Organization (ILO) said in its annual report on Tuesday, repeating a warning it has made at the start of each of the last six years. ...  

Infosys to fire up to 5,000 workers: Reports

Infosys is planning to lay off up to 5,000 employees as the software services provider looks to cut costs and boost sales, The Economic Times reported on Friday. The report came as Infosys Ltd executive co-chairman S Gopalakrishnan was quoted by other media reports as saying 2013 will be better than 2012 for India's IT industry. ...  

Arranging jobs for youth a serious challenge: Akhilesh

Lucknow: Admitting that arranging jobs for youth was a serious challenge before the Uttar Pradesh government, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Saturday said efforts are being made to woo industrialists to invest in the state. Addressing convocation of a private university here, Akhilesh said, "To arrange jobs for the youth was a serious challenge before the government and it was making efforts accordingly." He said that efforts were being made...  

US unemployment report likely to be out today

With the final report on the unemployment of the US likely to be out on Friday, speculations are on that how will it affect the prospects of President Barack Obama of a re-election. ...

Eurozone unemployment rises to new record

London: Unemployment in the 17-country eurozone hit a record high of 11.6 per cent in September, official figures showed on Wednesday, a sign the economy is deteriorating as governments struggle to get a grip on their three-year debt crisis. The rate reported by Eurostat, the EU's statistics office, was up from an upwardly revised 11.5 per cent in August. In total, 18.49 million people were out of work in the...  

US jobless claims fall to lowest in four-and-a-half years

Washington: The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week to the lowest level in more than four and a half years, according government data on Thursday that suggested improvement in the labour market. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits fell 30,000 to a seasonally adjusted 3,39,000, the Labour Department said. It was the lowest number of new claims since February 2008. The prior week's...  

FDI in retail will lead to massive unemployment: Uma

Patna: Senior BJP leader Uma Bharti onSaturday held that FDI in multi-brand would render crores unemployed once foreign retailers set up shop in the country. She said contrary to the Prime Minister's assertion, seven crore people, mostly traders, would become jobless and as also another 20 crore employed in the retail business. The senior BJP leader, who is on a 'Ganga Samagra Yatra' to create awareness on the cleanliness of...  

Unemployment rate fell under me: Obama

Washington: President Barack Obama has said the US is moving forward and the unemployment rate has fallen to its lowest level since he took office four years ago. His remarks came hours after latest figures revealed that America's unemployment rate has dropped to 7.8 per cent in the month of September, the lowest since 2009. "Today I believe that as a nation we're moving forward again," he said during an...  

Guj Cong promises govt jobs to 1 lakh youths in state

Ahmedabad: In a bid to woo voters, Gujarat Congress on Monday announced that if the party is voted to power, it would provide government jobs to one lakh youths and increase the age limit for getting such jobs from 30 to 35. "There are 33 per cent vacancies in state government offices and if Congress comes to power, the party will give government jobs to one lakh youths of the...  

B'lore: NE Indians who left now face unemployment

Bangalore: On August 18, when three trains departed from the Bangalore City Railway Station with large number of people from the North east, as the fear of being eliminated or beaten up by antisocial elements caved in, many were not sure of their destiny. However, when the entire government apparatus turned to their support, the confidence returned and from trickle to hordes, people are coming back. Unfortunately, their problem does...  

Keshubhai promises unemployment allowance

Ahmedabad: Former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel, who has launched a new political party, on Sunday promised to take a slew of welfare measures, if voted to power in the forthcoming assembly elections. Keshubhai, who floated Gujarat Parivartan Party last week, on Sunday said that his party would take a slew of measures like giving allowance for the unemployed youth (upto Rs 2,000), pass a new law to regularise pastoral...  

US economy growing slow, unemployment to stay

Washington: High unemployment isn't going away - not as long as the economy grows as slowly as it did in the April-June quarter. Weak consumer spending held growth to an annual rate of just 1.5 per cent, even less than the 2 per cent rate in the first quarter. And few expect the economy to accelerate in the second half of the year as Europe's financial woes and a US...  

CLB report says Gujarat's unemployment lowest

Ahmedabad: Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday welcomed Chandigarh Labour Bureau's latest report stating Gujarat has lowest unemployment rate among all states across the country. "Delighted! Gujarat has the least unemployment rate amongst all the states in the country and the national average," Modi wrote on twitter. While India's jobless rate stood at 3.8 per cent during the last fiscal, Gujarat showed lowest rate of one per cent, he said....  

Obama's 'presidential pardon' for schoolkid

Washington: Want to miss school? Get a good absent note. A fifth-grader in the US did just that by getting a handwritten note from Barack Obama asking the teacher to excuse his absence from school as he was with the American President. Tyler Sullivan, a fifth-grader in Rochester, went to watch his father, Ryan Sullivan, introduce Obama before the president's speech at Honeywell in Golden Valley. When he returns to...  

Bleak US jobs report a danger to global economy

Washington: Another bad month for the US job market is lengthening the list of perils facing the global economy. American employers added only 69,000 jobs in May, the fewest in a year and not even close to what economists expected. For the first time since June, the unemployment rate rose, to 8.2 per cent from 8.1 per cent. It was the third month in a row of weak job growth...